making friends with furniture
by sirrryesssirrr
Summary: Brad and Santana become friends of sorts. Brad's POV. General, character piece. Implied Brittany/Santana.


Disclaimer: No copyright infringement intended.

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><p>The first time he found himself in the choir room with one of the angry cheerleaders was after school, when he finished talking to Lorraine, the cute lunch lady.<p>

He wasn't surprised to hear sobbing in the choir room. He's learned long ago that these glee club members liked to sing after crying. Well, mostly Rachel but he'd witnessed a couple of others shed tears of their own. He cleared his throat before placing a hand on his waist. When she picked her head up, he was startled to see the bitchy girl who always made fun of everyone.

He thought that she was kind of mean, but she was really funny. And he found that he usually reacted the same way when they were assigned to do some asinine assignment or had to deal with one of those petty high school drama that littered glee club.

"Your tears are on my piano," he said. It was his attempt to lighten up the situation. He made a note to work on it next time. He watched as she self-consciously wiped her face, reduced to just sniffles.

"Wow, you talk."

He looked at her, confused, but let it go. She was highly emotional. That meant she was unstable and she could explode at any minute. Instead of replying, he pulled a handkerchief from his pocket and offered it to her. He learned to bring one ever since the first time he found Rachel Berry crying in the choir room by herself and he was empty handed. He felt bad, so he made a note to carry one.

She wiped the leftover tears from her face before blowing her nose. She crumpled the handkerchief in her hand and looked up at him.

"Thanks."

"That was for the piano," he said, his face remaining expressionless. Disoriented, she quickly tried to smooth the handkerchief in her hand to find areas devoid of tear stains and snot when he raised a hand to stop her. "Kidding."

She let out a sigh of relief when he smiled at her. "Thanks." He only nodded, though he looked expectantly at her. It took her a couple of moments to realize what he wanted.

"My bad," she said, standing up from the piano bench and taking a step back. He waved his hand dismissively and took a seat in front of the piano. He pulled his sleeves and placed his arm on the keys, wiped away any moisture from all of her crying. He looked at her again and offered a bearded grin before tapping on the keys.

He played various pieces of classical music before improvising. He was only vaguely aware that she stayed in the room. She could have stayed, she could have left. He didn't care either way.

He didn't know how long he was playing, but he figured it was long enough for the girl to fall asleep in one of the chairs. He looked at her from his bench and sighed before shaking his head. He walked to the drums and picked one of the drumsticks, standing a considerable distance away before poking her. She jolted awake from her spot and blinked into consciousness. She looked up to see him standing with a drumstick in his hand. Confused, she looked around and realized that she was the only other person in the choir room. He tapped on his watch and she hurriedly took her phone out of her pocket to check the time. 7:14 pm.

He silently watched as she jumped to her feet and rushed to the door before turning around and walking back up to him. She extended her hand with the handkerchief to return it before changing her mind and pulling it back. "I'll wash it."

He only nodded at her, his hand on his waist again.

He stood from his spot, unsure of what to do as she awkwardly patted him on the arm and said her thanks. At least he thought that was her thanking him. He shook his head again as she turned around and walked out of the choir room.

-l-

The second time Brad found himself in the choir room with Pat Benatar's stunt double, she was already waiting for him.

It was one of his days off from that loony bin of a glee club, but he was surprised to find her sitting on his bench again. At least she wasn't crying this time.

He noticed that as she tried and failed to play Mary Had a Little Lamb, she didn't hear him come in. He cleared his throat to announce his presence.

"You're here. Great," she said, standing from the bench and giving him room to sit. He raised an eyebrow but nonetheless took his seat on the bench, watching her. "I have a favor to ask."

He adjusted the glasses on his face and waited for her to continue. She picked up a booklet from the top of the piano and placed it in front of him. "I want to sing a song to cheer Brittany up because her idiot boyfriend called her stupid. I'm gonna need you to play this for me."

He wordlessly picked up the music and looked through the pages.

She placed a piece of paper right on top of the sheet music. "And because I'm in a generous mood, if you do that, I will throw in a free dinner coupon for two at Breadstix. So like, if you wantz ta get your freak on with the lunch lady, you can."

He plucked the coupon from her perfectly manicured hands and inspected it. "Oh, but it expires this weekend, so you're gonna need to work your magic on her or whoever soon. What say you, Elton John? You up for it?"

He looked at the coupon and considered her proposition. He wouldn't mind taking Lorraine on another date. She was impressed with him for being such a good storyteller.

He shrugged at her and nodded once. The song wasn't that hard to play and she was back to reviving the 80s fashion so she seemed a lot more stable now than last time.

She smiled sweetly at him before situating herself beside the piano. He placed the music in front of him and quickly sight read the notes. He placed his feet by the pedals and his hand on the keys. He waited for her cue.

"Make me look good, Piano Man," she said before giving him the cue to start playing.

He could only roll his eyes.

-l-

He wondered why he had to sit in the choir room with them for this. But he stopped questioning the motives and the actions of hormonal teenagers a long time ago.

He sat quietly on his bench and wiped the dust off of his piano, pretending that he wasn't listening in on a private conversation of two teenage girls.

"I'm so sad. I'm a sad little panda."

"Well, that's why I brought you here, to cheer you up." Little Miss Sappy Bell Bottoms looked at him just as she walked the other girl to a chair away from the piano. That was his cue to get ready. "I've been going through that _Rumours_ album, and I found the best song that really goes one step past Landslide in expressing my feelings for you. My private feelings for you."

The blonde hippy sitting down looked at him and he resisted the urge to look behind him. "What about him?"

"He's just furniture. Sorry, no offense," she said. He only shrugged, not really caring. He didn't have any business with whatever kind of feelings the two of them, or any of the students in glee club, had for each other. Besides, business was business.

She nodded at him to start. "Hit it."

He had to admit that she at least had a good enough taste in music, picking Songbird to sing to a girl she had feelings for. He considered Trouty Mouth as a misstep on her part, even though she sounded pretty good singing it.

When he played the last note, he let out a breath, satisfied with his performance. He looked at the two girls exchange words about prom and he figured it was time to make his exit.

He rose up from his bench and carefully put the piano cover down. As he reached the door, he quietly pulled the door behind him. When he turned around to make sure that the door didn't make too much noise, he saw her looking back at him with a smile on her face. She raised her hand in thanks and he shrugged. But it wasn't without a smile on his face.

Sometimes he didn't mind these teenagers so much.

The door clicked closed and he walked away to get ready for his date that night with Lorraine.

-l-

When Will Schuester announced that there were going to be auditions for finding the star of their nationals' performance, courtesy of curly hair 2.0's consultation, he rolled his eyes.

Surprisingly, Denim Hoarder was the only person who approached him about her song.

"I'm gonna be singing Amy Winehouse's Back to Black and want to make sure that you up your game, Piano Man."

He looked pointedly at her, his glasses almost slipping down his nose. She shrugged back and raised her hands. "If there's gonna be a star, it's not gonna be Nose Job, Wheezy, or Hairspray. It's gonna be me. And I'm gonna need to make sure that no one impedes on that."

He rolled his eyes, but readied himself anyway for her cue. She smirked as she cocked her head to the side. "That's right. Let's do this."

After all of the performances, if it was up to him, he would have picked her. But he was biased and partial to her. He didn't really care very much, picking favorites was fun.

-l-

He was only slightly disappointed the glee club didn't win nationals that year. But he wasn't that surprised considering they barely practiced. He couldn't really remember a time when he played the same music for over a week. They may have been talented, but they were always doing something besides actually rehearsing.

So he sat in the choir room with the glee club and listened to one of Will Schuester's many, many pep talks about being underdogs and being a family. He was pretty relieved it was the last one for the year.

When the last glee club meeting of the year ended, he watched the dozen students file out of the choir room. Will Schuester smiled at him and shook his hand, thanked him for playing with them all year. He simply shrugged back. When Will Schuester packed his things and walked out of the choir room, he thought that that guy really needed to graduate from all the vests.

He turned his attention to the piano. It was going to be goodbye for the summer. He sat back on the bench and began playing random things from his memory. It became a medley of songs and he ended up getting pretty into his playing.

As he hit the last few notes of his final performance for the year, he was startled to hear clapping come from the doorway.

"Didn't think you had it in you," she said as she walked up to him by the piano. Tight Dress Galore wore, not surprisingly, a tight dress only covered by a jacket he could only guess came from her parents' closet.

He bowed to her and she laughed. "Anyway, since I won't be seeing you for the last week or so left of school, thought I'd come back to return this to you."

She pulled a handkerchief from one of her pockets. He didn't think he was going to see that one again. "I forgot I had it. But at least it's clean." He nodded his gratitude and accepted it, folding it in a perfect square before placing it in his pocket.

"How are you and your friend?" he asked without even realizing he actually cared.

"It still kinda freaks me out that you talk," she said, seemingly more surprised about his ability to speak than what he was asking about. "But we're good now." She looked at the door and he followed her line of vision only to find the object of her affections and Hairspray talking to each other.

When she looked back, he nodded approvingly.

She tapped on the top of the piano and smiled at him, getting ready to leave.

"Time to go. Have a good summer, Tinkles. I'll see you here next year," she said putting her fist up. He brought his own fist up and knocked it against hers.

Soon after, they were all gone and he was left alone.

As he placed the cover on the piano, he thought about the next year. He would be here. Besides, what would the singing super gay alliance do without his piano expertise? They would probably be lost without him.


End file.
